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How To Creatively Recycle Your Crayons

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how to melt crayons
Don’t toss out your broken, stubby crayons! There is an easy way to make old crayons into brand new ones that your children will want to color with once again – and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

What You’ll Need:

Silicone molds (make sure they are oven safe to at least 200 degrees)
Crayons – peel off the wrapper. TIP: Use an Exacto knife to cut down the seam of the crayon and the paper should easily remove itself.

Directions:

1. Break crayons into small (1/2 inch or less) pieces and fill your molds not quite all the way to the top. The wax will melt, and you don’t want it to go over the top edge of the mold – but you don’t want to put so few crayon pieces in that they shrink into a teeny thin crayon.
2. Place your mold into a preheated 200 degree oven for about 20 minutes. I usually start checking on mine around the 15 minute mark. You’ll know they are ready when the wax is completely liquified and no longer lumpy.
3. Remove from oven at let cool for a couple of hours. Carefully and slowly, pop the crayons out of the silicone molds to avoid breaking them.
4. Let the coloring fun begin!

Notes:
*You can mix different color crayons for a fun rainbow colored crayon.
*You can swirl the melted wax with a toothpick to make designs in the crayon before it cools.
DO NOT try to melt crayons in the microwave – this is a fire hazard!
*You can melt crayons on a flat baking sheet and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes once the wax cools a bit and starts to harden.
*You can use metal molds (be sure to spray with cooking spray first), but it just isn’t as easy to pop the crayons out of those. Silicone is much easier to use.
*Crayola brand crayons have worked best for me. However, Washable Crayons will not work for this project!

Crayons are fun party favors. I have used a Star shaped mold for 4th of July, Lego molds for a Lego-themed birthday and a Flower-shaped mold for springtime. If you don’t have a shaped mold, you can easily use mini muffin tin molds to make circle-shaped crayons. A heart-shaped mold is perfect for Valentine’s Day. The possibilities are endless!

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I have done this project many times and will be glad to help you figure out how to do this fun crayon recycling project.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brigid says

    Hi
    Can I speed up the cooling process by putting the mold in the fridge or will the negatively affect the result?
    Thanks!

    • Nicole says

      Hi Brigid, That’s a great question. I haven’t ever tried to speed up the process by putting the mold in the fridge. But, I really can’t think of any reason why not to do it like this. I would think that should work to cool them down faster. It’s worth giving a try if you are in a hurry to get the crayons made. If you have time to do a test crayon before doing a whole batch, just to be sure so you don’t waste a lot of effort. Good luck! –Nicole

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  3. Debi Jones says

    I used the silicone molds in my classroom to show students that we do not have to always throw things away; we can recycle. I melted the crayons in tin cans placed in a big boiler with heated water. I bent spouts on the cans. When crayons were melted completely I poured into slicone molds. We put all shades of green together, blue, etc. I think I used about 8 cans. So we made a completely new green, blue, etc. Kids loved it, but now I have the problem of cleaning the crayon out of the molds. I have boiled in hot water and that does not help. Does anybody have any really great ideas for cleaning these?? If so please email me. Thanks so much

    • Nicole says

      Hi Debi, Sounds like your class loved the project! The silicone molds are really hard to get the crayon wax out of. I’m not sure if anyone else has better ideas, but I found that scrubbing them with a toothbrush while running them under super hot water was the only way I could get them out. And the darker colored crayon wax did tend to leave harder stains. Hope that helps! -Nicole

  4. Melissa says

    I found that if you spray the silicone mold with goo gone or wd 40 and let it sit for a few minutes then wipe with a paper towel it cleans them up pretty good too!

    • Nicole says

      Great idea! I’ll have to try that, it would save a LOT of time and sounds a lot easier than scrubbing. Thank you for sharing the tip!

    • Nicole says

      The darker crayons do end up leaving a stain on the mold (or at least they did on mine – but I used mine a LOT). To clean the crayon wax off when I was finished, I used a toothbrush to scrub the mold while holding it under very hot water. That was the method that worked best for me – if you hear of anything easier, let me know. 🙂

  7. Monica says

    Great instructions – I’ve been looking for something this thorough for awhile, so thanks! How did you make the lego versions?

    • Nicole says

      I went to the LEGO website and they sell silicone ice trays that I used for molds. The ice tray molds are not oven safe, but I found that I could use them to melt crayons in the oven as long as I kept watch on them and didn’t heat the oven past 200 degrees. I made LOTS of brick and figure shaped crayons this way, but eventually using the ice trays in the oven will wear them out.

      I’m glad the instructions helped! 🙂

  9. Jacqueline says

    Great idea! Can the silicone mold be reused after this project? We use our molds for ice – my son would be disappointed if they needed to be retired. Thank you for sharing!

    • Nicole says

      You are welcome! We have fun recycling our crayons from time to time with this project. To answer your question: In my opinion, yes, the molds can be reused. I have found the best way to clean all the melted wax off is to run hot water over the mold while I scrub it with a toothbrush to remove the wax.

  11. Katie P says

    I did this with my daughter. We used a heart mold, used a clear gift baggie, stuck in a piece of cardstock with a message and gave them away on Valentine’s day! SO CUTE!!! GREAT way to use up all of those yucky broken crayons!!

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